State Swimming: La Salle, Upper Dublin boys take charge on Day 1

There was a lot of action featuring local standouts Friday at the first-day session of the 2013 PIAA Boys Class AAA Swimming and Diving Championships — especially in the championship final of the 200-yard freestyle.

Based on their times from the morning preliminaries in the big meet at Bucknell University’s Kinney Natatorium, five of the top seven seeds (including the top four) are swimmers from three area schools located in very close proximity — Upper Dublin, La Salle and North Penn.

Upper Dublin’s Bobby Bantley advanced to the finals as top seed at 1:36.943 and his teammate Eric Jensen was third seed at 1:40.75. Sandwiched between them was North Penn’s Jack Morris at 1:40.54.

La Salle’s Evan Holder was seeded fourth at 1:41.01 and his teammate Kyle McElwee had the seventh seed at 1:42.51. Additionally, North Penn’s Thanas Kountroubis made it to the consolation finals as 11th seed at 1:43.08.

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Bantley held his seed and claimed the gold medal with a time of 1:37.12 and Jennsen snagged the silver medal at 1:38.93. Morris checked in at number four with a time of 1:40.19. Holder was fifth at 1:40.78, McElwee seventh at 1:41.88 and Kountroubis 11th at 1:42.82.

Upper Dublin’s Bantley and Eric Jensen also swam on the Cardinals’ 200 medley relay along with Cooper Tollen and Michael Jensen. Seeded second for the finals, they won the gold medal and set a new state record. The Cardinals’ time of 1:31.28 wiped out the old record of 1;31.94 set by La Salle in 2011.

In individual action for the Cards, Michael Jensen won the bronze medal in the 100 butterfly at 49.61 and Christopher Devlin paced 12th in the 200 IM at 1:55.76. Also, Ian Flynn placed 18th in the 200 IM at 1:57.34 and tied for 18th in the 100 butterfly at 52.55.

La Salle, the 2013 Philadelphia Catholic League and District 12 Class AAA champion, took a huge step forward toward its goal of winning back-to-back state titles. The Little Explorers were seeded first for the finals in the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay.

In the evening races, the team of Joseph Maginnis, Nick Stachel, Gregory Rogers and Brendan Koch captured the silver medal medal in the 200 medley relay at 1:31.51. Later in the meet, the foursome of Greg Brocato, Kyle McElwee, Rogers and Stachel placed second in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:23.40.

Sean Regan was seeded first for the finals in the 100 butterfly and Maginnis had second seed in the same event. Reganheld his seed and webnt gold at 48.84 while Maginnis finished fourth with a time of 49.62.

Evan Holder and Michael McBryan both earned fourth seeds in the trials. In the finals, Holder placed fifth in the 200 freestyle at 1:40.78 and McBryan took sixth place in the 200 IM at 1:52.59.

Brocato was seeded third in the 50 free and finished third at 20.80 while Rogers made it to the consolation finals in the 50 free and finished 12th overall at 21.44. Additionally, Koch finished 22nd in the 50 freestyle with a clocking of 21.73 and his teammate Vincent Everman placed 17th in the 200 IM with a time of 1:56.45.

Plymouth Whitemarsh’s Evan Sherkness was seeded seventh in the 50 freestyle coming into the meet and was also seeded seventh for the finals based on his trials time of 21.07. In the championship race, the Colonial senior finished seventh with a time of 21.16.

Perkiomen Valley’s foursome of Will Swiss, Wyatt Amdor, Sean Hodgins and Kyle Dix clocked a 1:37.45 in the trials of the 200 medley relay to advance to the consolation race as 14th seed. In the evening, the Vikings posted a time of 1:37.70 to place 13th overall.

Individually, Wyatt posted a 25th-place finish in the 200 IM with a time of 1:59.05 and Dix finished 32nd in the 50 freestyle with a clocking of 22.53.

Methacton’s Ricky Weber arrived at Bucknell as the 32nd seed in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.01 and finished 22nd overall with an impressive drop to 21.73.

In addition to his strong finish in the 200 free, North Penn’s Jack Morris also placed 10th in the 100 butterfly after posting a time of 50.91 in the consolation finals. He also joined with Brandon Anders, Liam Kelly and Kountroubis on the Knights’ 200 freestyle relay that finished 10th at 1:25.92.